Notes

Highlights: tracks 1,10,17, 22, 23, 24

*** UPDATE TO THE NOV 08 POST WITH THE FIRST 15 SONGS ADDED

Players:
Charles Atkins - keyboards and vocals
"Lefty Rhodes" - bass
The Blues Boys
Larry Laseur - harmonica, backup vocals, cowbell
vocals on That's Alright
Harty Wiedemann - guitar, vocals $
Tom Henning - guitar
with Jerry White - drums

*** UPDATE TO THE NOV 08 POST WITH THE FIRST 15 SONGS ADDED
Too bad I missed recording the first song in this session - Save the Children - might have been interesting. Track 2 is Green Onions with Tom getting to take a lead since Harty is late. When H does come in I think we "almost" felt guilty starting without him. By the way - you really don't want to hear Harty singing the Christmas song - sorry.

Don't Get Around Much Any More has a nice swing. After this I think the boys are taking a break to BS so Charles goes off into Misty. Too funny as Larry says: " Charles you're a lounge whore you". Sweet Little Angel is good, and that carries over to another of C's favs - Stop Leading Me On.

New Train - another song the boys developed but this take has not quite left the station, slow to start. Later versions really click on down the track. Check out Charles on the city to city stations - always a hoot.

--- Nov 08 Post
The band was in transition at this point; Jerry is Chuck White's brother (the ex-first drummer) and he was sorta helping us out by sitting in at practice. He played in Tom's other band - Low Pressure - as opposed to lots of pressure Blues Boys :) Other than the first track (ed. - now track 16 - he must have left early); I don't hear Jerry at all. That said tho, the mix is quite nice and certainly showcases Charles singing and playing. That's him thumping the bass line all thru the session. These are standard covers for Charles; some he still plays today. The Boys may know the tunes but then practice is about learning the way Charles does them.

Sloppy Drunk is cool - love the talk about Charles changing the words of this BB King song. Track 8 - I knew I had a recording of Loving You Is All I Crave - prior to the Gay Kelly version that shows up half a year later. And in case you haven't been All Around the World - grits ain't groceries; eggs ain't poultry; and Mona Lisa was a man....

Hold That Train is excellent. I cut the tape at the end but then turned it back on as Charles started talking about his mouse problem.That's Alright is usually sung by Harty but Larry takes a crack at it and does well even tho he forgets the words near the end and then they all join in. Kiddio has a tape break in the middle - oh well....

Last track is something that will come up now and then in practice over the next year and one of the few times you'll actually hear Tom on lead guitar. He was quite determined to learn this one; it's certainly challenging. And finally at the end you can hear us asking Charles if he has any new songs to record.

Nov 2008 New version of Final Vinyl (2.5.1 from Griffin Technology) which seems to work much better. Only blew up on me once - when I first tried it and did something I shouldn't have. It has a whole bunch of filters I don't understand and while I may learn it someday, for now I kept with the tried and true - separating tracks; adding fade-ins and fade-outs where the darn taper chopped things off; adjusting the volume; or tweaking EQ to mitigate the tape hiss (well a little anyways). UPDATE Xmas 2008 - 16 years almost to the day. Enjoy! SCopeland